PayPal is teaming up with Home Depot, Aeropostale and other merchants to offer discounts and freebies to consumers in exchange for downloading and using its mobile application.

Shopping and purchasing via mobile is gaining ground as more people own the devices and become comfortable and confident using them. To tap into this, eBay-owned PayPal has aggressively been signing up retailers in an effort to streamline mobile wallets and payments.

“People want [free offers],” said Sam Ganga, executive vice president of the commercial division at DMI Mobile Enterprise Solutions, Bethesda, MD. “They’re actually saying, ‘Where is my coupon?’

“[Companies] want high returns,” he said.

Mr. Ganga is not affiliated with PayPal. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

PayPal did not meet press deadline.

Brand interest
PayPal revamped and launched its app in September, adding consumer-friendly features such as mobile offers, order-ahead capabilities at thousands of locations and the ability to finance purchases (see story).

With the revamp, PayPal is differentiating its mobile payment strategy with the combination of offers and payments.

Additionally, PayPal is already a favored mobile payments app among consumers (see story).

This week PayPal sent its users an email inviting them to download its app to receive $5 off at Home Depot for using the app.

Home Depot and PayPal have worked together closely in the past.

In Jan. 2012, Home Depot became the first retailer to offer in-store mobile payments through Paypal (see story).

Additionally, Aeropostale is offering a $20 coupon to PayPal app users that can be redeemed on purchases of $80 or more.

Some offers are local and expire quickly. The Bean – Broadway, a coffee shop in New York City, offered a $5 coupon for purchases made with the PayPal app, which expired on Dec. 11.

Similarly, Jamba Juice is offering consumers $5 off of a smoothie when they use the PayPal app to pay at certain stores in New York. That offer expires Dec. 31.

When a consumer uses the PayPal app to pay and order in advance at Jamba Juice, they can walk directly into the store, go to the counter, pick up their order and avoid standing in line.

The goal here, of course, is that consumers will continue to use the app after redeeming the offer so that the retailers can build a stronger relationship with consumers into 2014.

Aeropostale’s PayPal coupon

Pay on mobile
The PayPal app is available for free for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Windows and Android phones.

By enabling the app’s geo-location feature, the app will identify nearby merchants, which participate in its pre-order and pay option.

The critical piece for PayPal is that the offers are timely and local.

Additionally, retailers get a better grasp on how consumers want to use their mobile devices to pay for things.

“[Companies] want to use apps for buying behavior analysis,” Mr. Ganga said.

Final Take
Kari Jensen is staff writer at Mobile Marketer, New York